Current Eli Lilly (LLY) CEO John C. Lechleiter and incoming CEO David Ricks reacted to the phase three testing failure of the company's Alzheimer's drug.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) were sinking by 13.36% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, after the company's Alzheimer's drug Solanezumab failed to meet the end goals in its phase three testing.

Eli Lilly stated that the patients treated with the drug did not show a significant slowing of memory loss, as compared to patients taking the placebo. Consequently, Eli Lilly will not seek regulatory approval.

"We are disappointed for all the people within the company who have worked on this project over many years," Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Wednesday morning.

"We are also disappointed for the millions of patients and caregivers still out there looking for something to slow down the progression of this disease, or perhaps prevent it altogether," he continued.

Nevertheless, Eli Lilly will remain committed to Alzheimer's and is in various phases of testing with other drugs. Through those trials, Lechleiter says, the company will obtain all the information it can and apply it to the development of other medicines.

"We will share the data with the scientific community on December 8 at the clinical trials on Alzheimer's disease meeting in San Diego," Lechleiter said.

Furthermore, incoming CEO David Ricks says that Eli Lilly was always poised to move forward with or without Solanezumab.

"We knew it was a high risk and high reward program. We are disappointed with this result, but we have a lot going on beyond Alzheimer's," Ricks stated. "We have a great team here at Lilly focused on that even today with this disappointing news."